Family Centered Care

In our NICU, we strive to provide Family Centered Care to all our patients. This is an approach to medical care rooted in the belief that the best outcomes are achieved when patients’ family members play an active role in providing emotional, social, and developmental support. In order to provide this type of care, our unit allows unlimited parental presence, encourages parent participation in care and decision-making, kangaroo care, and offers breastfeeding support.

In addition, we have a dedicated March of Dimes representative in our unit who provides sibling support, and offers parent education seminars and family support activities. In order to ensure mothers nutrition, we also offer meals free of charge to all of our patient’s mothers. Our other dedicated NICU services include Social Work, Lactation, Occupational Therapy, and Care Coordination for discharge planning. We also understand that some families cannot visit as often as they would like so we also have a Cuddler Program to ensure that all infants receive the human touch that is essential for optimal growth and development.

Our commitment to Family Centered Care will grow with our unit expansion and remodel which will provide single-patient rooms with dedicated space for families in the patient’s room, a new lobby space with a place for siblings and parents to relax, and a family nutrition area as well as parent showers and laundry.

Care of Extremely Low Gestational Age Neonates

We are committed to offering potentially lifesaving treatment to the youngest preterm infants, some as early as 22 weeks gestation. The decision to provide care to this population of preterm infants differs among NICU’s nationwide with only one in four hospitals providing this care at 22 weeks and one in three hospitals providing care at 23 weeks. Survival at this early gestation is still low and depends highly on coordinated care and intervention before and after delivery. We will provide this care if parents wish after collaborative discussion between our team and the family.

Our Neonatologists and Neonatal Nurse Practitioners partner with the Maternal Fetal specialists to provide optimal care of both mother and baby. Our dedicated and specialized team uses an approach that has been shown to improve outcomes after preterm birth. Once in our NICU, we are able to offer the most advanced ventilation available (including high frequency Jet and Oscillation) and care by a dedicated nursing and respiratory therapy staff.

Our approach also includes starting feedings early for the best nutrition. Our commitment to the best nutrition includes offering donor human milk, which can be lifesaving for premature infants and is available through the on-site Heart of America Mothers’ Milk Bank. In addition, we use several strategies to prevent infection and brain injury in these vulnerable infants. Parent involvement remains crucial for these babies during their hospitalization. Our care of these infants continues for those with ongoing medical issues in our NICU Medical Follow-up Clinic.

These combined strategies make us one of the leaders in our region for care of these tiniest of infants.